While respect must be paid to Jarre for his excellent career in tackling epics of natural immensity, The River Wild wasn't one his better efforts. He wrote an expansive primary theme for nature itself, a rousing and impressive identity that by itself is more entertaining than anything Goldsmith wrote for the picture. But how Jarre applied it to the film isn't particularly satisfying, its bloated dramatic scope not really connecting with the characters and adapting poorly to the suspense and action of the score. It is in this more frantic half of the work that Jarre truly struggled, his suspense material relying upon walls of dissonance of various volumes to convey angst. Still, in this and the melodic portions, there is more Lawrence of Arabia to be heard in this score than expected, especially in the application of percussion. Jarre recorded several variations of the "Reunion" cue at the end of the story, and each of these, along with his opening scene cues, states the main theme with gloriously resounding depth. Despite applicability issues with these passages, they are more singularly impressive on album than anything Goldsmith provided for The River Wild despite the better melodic cohesion, pacing, and ambience of Goldsmith's approach in sum. Goldsmith provided tones reminiscent of the similar but more compelling music he would supply for the outdoors in both Medicine Man and The Edge in the same era. One of Hanson's requests of Goldsmith was that he adapt the traditional tune "The Water is Wide" into the primary identity of his original score, a move not taken by Jarre. In fact, Jarre only adapted the tune into a short sequence of the credits after the song version, and given how well he interpreted, and in a few cases manipulated, the melody, it's a shame he hadn't done more with it. For Goldsmith, this theme became the wholesome, sensitive representation of the family in between the moments of tension in the middle and later portions of the picture. To popularize the film, the light rock/country group "Cowboy Junkies" was brought in to arrange and perform this traditional tune as well, a move that was starting to become typical of studio mentality in the 1990's. Ironically, the vocal performances in the case of The River Wild aren't likely to be the reason for listeners' negative reaction to the music in the film and on album. There is nothing structurally wrong with Goldsmith's score for The River Wild, but it wholly redundant in the composer's career, with far superior variations of every aspect of this score in his other projects.

Goldsmith's adaptation of "The Water is Wide" for the family in The River Wild is handled with a light heart by the composer's usual flute and string-based sensibilities, solo trumpet performances gracing the beginning and end of the score to fortify the independent spirit of Streep's character. The theme isn't remarkably different from an original Goldsmith idea (he admitted that he wishes he had written it), rolling the sentiment of Rudy and Matinee into a predictable, soft package with little in merit to discuss other than the tune's basic, affable effectiveness in this context. Goldsmith largely abandons the melody as the score progresses towards its suspense motif, which itself is also lacking a particularly interesting structure when compared to similar ideas that would mature in The Edge. He creates tension with short bursts of rhythm from brass followed by extended whole notes, and without any unique instrumentation, the process becomes tiresome after just a few minutes. In "Little Niagra," however, Goldsmith does allow the blasts to develop characteristics similar to Michael Kamen's climax to Die Hard (and that score's "falling motif" most specifically), but once again without any particularly interesting variation in execution. It's fitting that Goldsmith decided not to score nature itself to the same degree he would in The Edge (or as Jarre did here), but then again, he didn't tackle the malevolence of the evil humans with the electronic bombast that he used so effectively in Medicine Man, either. Overall, despite undoubtedly earning his pay for his last-minute replacement work, Goldsmith was flat with this one, leaving possible avenues of creativity unexplored. The only other issue of note involves the Cowboy Junkies song. While Goldsmith collectors may consider their light guitar, electric bass, harmonica, percussion, and vocals an unnecessary distraction, it is actually their presence that distinguishes The River Wild. Michael Timmins' adaptation the tune and Margo Timmins' soft, inviting vocals in the song performances fit well with Goldsmith's variation on the same idea, and the mixing of the song edit and the orchestral ensemble in "Family Reunion" is very well arranged. Aided by two superb transitions between score and song in that end titles track, the shorter album was recommendable. A delightful presentation of both the complete Goldsmith and rejected Jarre scores was provided in 2015 by Intrada Records, though, and no film music enthusiast should be without this outstanding product. It's a fascinating listening experience, and in appreciating the highlights of Jarre's main theme, one cannot blame him for retiring from Hollywood after being replaced by Goldsmith on both this and First Knight the next year.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download